‘Putin Costs Russians Too Much Even in the Direct Sense,’ Official Figures Show

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 13 – Russians have paid a high price for Vladimir Putin’s time in power in terms of international isolation, massive capital outflows, and missed opportunities for societal improvement at home; but newly released government figures show that the Kremlin leader “costs too much even in the direct sense,” Sergey Okunyev says.

            Citing official figures, the Russian blogger notes that Russians spend more supporting Putin and his administration than they do for entire federal subjects, that he costs more than is spent for Kalmykia or the Jewish Autonomous District, and that taxpayers are spending 13 times as much on Putin as on supplemental education (rusmonitor.com/putin-obkhoditsya-rossii-slishkom-dorogo-v-pryamom-smysle.html).

            In 2018, official figures show, Okunyev continues, that the government spent 16 billion rubles (220 million US dollars) on Putin and his Presidential administration. Compared to the overall state budget of 16 trillion rubles (220 billion US dollars), that might seem a drop in the bucket.

            However if one compares what the state spends on Putin and what it spends on priority projects, the picture becomes clear, the commentator suggests.  Moscow spends only 9.8 billion rubles on promoting small business, only 12 billion to making universities innovation centers, and only 2.2 billion rubles on additional education, all far less than on Putin.

            That pattern continues with other “priority” tasks as well, Okunyev says. Moscow spends 3.5 billion rubles for promoting IT professionals, only 1.5 billion for raising productivity, only 4.5 billion for developing single-industry towns, and only 5 billion to improve living conditions in housing.

            And for some priority programs, the imbalance between spending on Putin and on them is truly disturbing. Moscow spent only 2.7 billion on environmental cleanup of rivers – and only 481 million rubles for cleaning up the Volga. “That is not a typo,” the blogger says; It is 40 times less than the annual bill for Putin and his administration.”

            Even the promotion of a healthy way of life received only 403 million rubles. “The model of Putin as sportsman didn’t help.”  Improved medical assistance was judged worthy of even less – 90 million rubles for the year – or “177 times less than spending on the head of the Russian Federation.”

            Putin’s defenders, Okunyev acknowledges, can point to some sectors where the government spent more than on Putin. Roads, for example, where it spent about twice as much.  Presumably if it spent the money on roads that it is spending on Putin, they would get a lot better quickly.

            In publishing this commentary, the editor of Rusmonitor note that “in reality, Putin and his criminal regime cost us incomparably more: According to the calculations of experts, during Putin’s time in power were exported a trillion (!) not of rubles but of dollars which could have been spent on the development and modernization of the country.”

            “And this is only the direct harm from the theft and corruption,” they write. It doesn’t include the costs that Russians have had to pay for the fact that as a result of Putin policies, their country has gone from being a member of the G8 to an international outcast, ranked alongside Iran and North Korea.

            It is going to take “several decades,” Rusmonitor says, for Russians to overcome these unjustified “expenditures.”